Despite it’s enormous convenience for tourists like me, the Euro was a bad idea which has done major damage to many Southern European nation’s economies, including Italy. It’s a long story but basically by using a regional currency these countries abandon control over their national monetary policy, one of the tools that nations can use to work their way out of economic downturns. Thus, Italy couldn’t respond to the 2008 crisis by devaluing their currency, and thus were instead left only with expansionary fiscal policy as an option… EXCEPT the EU also forbade Southern European nations like Italy from utilizing large deficit spending to revitalize their economy as well as one of the conditions for bailing them out on their debt. In other words, the EU has tied Italy’s hands in both of it’s major economic policy domains, preventing it from adjusting and rebounding from it’s economic crisis.